Iím a woman who loves Jesus, my husband, my children, and everyday I try to show my love more completely to them. I also like to laugh and be with friends. And as of December 2008, I'm a weekly newspaper columnist. You can reach me at
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Iím a woman who loves Jesus, my husband, my children, and everyday I try to show my love more completely to them. I also like to laugh and be with friends. And as of December 2008, I'm a weekly newspaper columnist. You can reach me at erinslittlecorneroftheworld@gmail.com.

Two weeks ago the family and I headed to Branson for our family vacation. We got home late on a Saturday night and approximately 2.5 minutes later (or 20 hours later, if you want to be exact) I left for our church’s elementary camp. Here are some things I learned from almost two weeks of living on limited sleep and observing people:

1) No matter how organized you try to be, you will forget important things. The first week you will forget razors and the second week you will forget shampoo. You learn to make do with used razors and body wash as shampoo.

2) Although you try not to judge others parenting styles--cuz we’ve all had the angry, loud kid, haven’t we?--you will judge in extreme cases. Like when the PRECIOUS teeny pig-tailed little girl in the bathroom screams not in defiance (punishable offense, for sure) but out of slight fear, you will slit your eyes at the mother when your own daughter is not looking, then nod in agreement and say “Poor little girl” to your daughter who is concerned for the teeny pig-tailed girl, then decide to pray that that momma find the Lord’s love and peace and guidance because good heavens most days that is the only way you make it through yourself.

3) You will try not to get your feelings hurt by your son--who’s been asking you for an entire year to come to elementary camp with him--who barely nods your way upon arrival to said camp. And then you’ll be glad you talked yourself through it, prayed through it, because one day he starts choosing to sit with you at all meals and even saves you a seat, all after he’s proven to himself that he can do it on his own. And you’ll be really glad that your son knows he can always count on you to fall back on.

4) You will be really grateful for apps that allow you to pay bills from your phone, and apps that allow you to move money from savings to checking when you forget to do that before leaving town.

5) You will still be catching up on housework nearly a week after getting home, because it doesn’t matter. To a degree it does, clean dishes are always useful, but the dusting and the scrubbing of toilets is not so important. Being with your family is.